Railway vehicle



Feb. 24, 1942. c, BREER RAILWAY VEHICLE Original Filed May 2'7, 1957 hmm,

Paiement. 24, 1942 UNITED STATES 'PATl-:NT oFF-ICE RAmwAY VEHICLE v Carl Breer, Grosse Pointe Park, Mich., assignor, by mesne assignments, to Railroad Rolling Stock Patents Corporation, a corporation of Delaware (VCI. 105-4) 2' claims.

My invention relates generally to vehicles and it has particular relation to various types of railway vehicles in lwhich a series of cars are drawn or propelled over rails or tracks, and which may be employed for the hauling of a load comprising passengers or merchandise. This application is a division ofmy co-pending application, Serial No. 145,007, filed May 27, 1937, which `has since matured into U. S. Patent No. 2,208,627, granted July 23, 1940.

One object of my invention consists in providing a railway vehicle of the articulated type in which all forces passing through each car to the remainder of thecars `are confined to a chassis A frame thereof, leaving the car body free to move with respect thereto at all times regardless of the stresses and strains to which the various parts of the train may be subjected.

Another object of my invention consists in providing a novel type of railway car constructionl of the articulated type in which the car body is mounted on a chassis frame at points so arranged as to subject the body to a minimum of shock and disturbance due to irregularities in the road bed and rails and which permits of operating the cars at higher speeds with less danger of derailment.

A further object of my invention comprises providing a novel method of mounting a railway carbody on a chassis so that the car body may be uniformly mounted on the chassis regardless `of whether or not that chassis constitutes a selfcontained individual unit or'is part of an articulated train.

For a better understanding of my invention reference may now be had to the accompanying drawing, in which: l

Fig. 1 consists vof a side elevational viewv of portions of several cars of an articulated type of railway train embodying my invention with portions of the cars omitted in the interest of clarity.

Fig. 2 is a detail plan view of the vsupporting structure of a portion of the mechanism illustrated inFig. 1.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail side view partially in elevation and partially in section, of the car -coupling mechanism employed in Fig. l.

In the structure illustrated in Fig. 1 each car is provided with a chassis frame 32, substantially equal in length to the length of its cooperating car body 33, which is mounted thereon by means of sets of elliptical leaf springs 34, or other resilient means, which, in turn, are supported by lateral extensions 35, constituting portions of the main chassis frames 32. One end of each of the chassis frames 32 is provided with an extension" 36 having a circular opening 31 therein through which a king pin,` or center bearing 38, extends, the lower end of the center bearing 38 extending through a bolster 39 constituting a part of a truck frame 40 disposed at'the meeting point at the end ofthe chassis frames 32 of two adjacent cars. The chassis frame at the opposite endof each car is provided with an extension 4I which extends downwardly and forwardly, as shown in Fig. 3 so as to't beneath the extension 36 of the adjoining car, this being necessary in order to have it pivotally secured to the same king pin or bearing 38, as the chassis frames of both cars are level.

In this construction the weight of the car body is carried by the chassis frame 32, through the agency of the springs 34, and is transmitted through the ends 36 and 31 of the chassis frames 32 'to the bolsters 39 of the truck frames 40 so that each truck carries one end of two adjacent cars, thus forming an articulated construction in whichthe weight carrying trucks are spaced a maximum distance from each other.' At the same time the car bodies are supported in the vertical transverse planes of the centers of percussion of the car body with respect to axes of rotation in the `vertical transverse planes of the centers of suspension at the opposite ends of the car bodies. `This construction permits of operating the cars at a maximum speed over irregular tracks with a minimum danger of derail- .ment due to irregularities and curves in the tracks and at the same time permits the car vbodies to be supported in the vertical transverse planes of their respective centers of percussion, thus providing a maximum degree of comfort and a minimum amount of shock and disturbance being transmitted to the car body owing to irregularities in the rails.

The -overall length of the chassis portion 36 and 4I is such that the ends of the car bodies lcannot come into engagement with each other when the -cars are passing around bends, orarev be noted that all tension and compression forces exerted on the train, or being transmitted through one car to adjacent cars, are exerted on the chassis frame and none of them are exerted on the car body,and it is otherwise free to move on its suspension means entirely freely and in dependently of the other car bodies. This is particularly eillcacious in eliminating disturbing forces when the train is entering a curve at which time its overall length is decreased or when emerging therefrom at which time its overall length is increased resulting in the generation of considerable forces between the cars. In addtion, it will be apparent that thevvarious coiiapsible bellows between cars will not be necessary where freight cars are employed.

Although I have illustrated but one form which my invention may assume it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that it is not so limited but that various modifications and changes may be incorporated therein without departing from the spirit of my invention or from the scope o the appended claims.

I claim:

1. An articulated train comprisinga4 plurality of vehicles each including a car body adapted to carry a load to be transported, a relatively rigid chassis frame extending substantially the length of the car body, springs interposed between said carbody and frame adjacent each end thereof for resiliently supporting the body on the frame at two spaced centers of suspension, said springs constituting the sole support of said car body and being adapted to permit movement of said car body with respect to said frame in all directions, said centers of suspension being so disposed with respect to the distribution of weight of said body that each substantially coincides with. a vertical transverse plane passing through a center of percussion of said body with respect to an axis oi rotation disposed in the vertical transverse plane of the other center of suspension, and wheel trucks disposed at one end of each chassis frame and adapted to support it, said wheel truck being adapted to support an adjacent end of the chassis frame of the next adjacent vehicle. r

2. An articulated train comprising a plurality of vehicles each including a car body adapted to carry the load to be transported, a relatively rigid chassis frame extending substantially the length of each car body; means interposed between the car body and frame adjacent each end thereof for resiliently supporting the body on the frame at the two centers of suspension for movement in all directions within predetermined limits with respect to the frame; said centers of suspension being spaced from one another and so disposed with respect to the length of the body that each substantially coincides with a vertical transverse plane passing through a center of percussion of said body with respect to an axis of rotation disposed in the vertical transverse plane of the other center of suspension; a wheel truck supporting the ends of the chassis frames. of two adjacent vehicles; means for securing adjacent ends of said frames together in pivoted relationship whereby all of the draft forces will be transmitted through said frames independently of the car bodies; and flexible means providing a passageway interconnecting adjacent car bodies.

' CARL BREER. 

